Hacker News Reader

HNHacker News

Top New Best Ask Show Jobs

Comment by ColinWright | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

ColinWright·

Not possible because of optical resolutions. If you web search that question you'll get more details.

https://www.google.com/search?q=can+I+use+a+telescope+to+see...

Here are some responses:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100906195045AA...

http://stupendous.rit.edu/richmond/answers/lunar_lander.html

http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=134/

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/08/12/mo...

View on HN

I was sure you could use the Hubble at least. Shows how much I know about this stuff :) Thanks for the links, they are quite informative.

Actually, I remember reading somewhere that the Hubble was in fact pointed at the Lunar landing sites at one point, but that even its resolution was too low to produce any conclusive images of the landing sites.

We just need to get the NRO to let us borrow one of their satellites :)

And to point out that not only do you need an Aperture that you can't currently get, you need to air to stop moving so that you can look through it. The heat in the atmosphere causes the gas molecules to bounce around and they tend to refract light so you end up with foggy vision.

Its also why you can't get a clear image of the ISS (which is in low earth orbit) or even geostationary satellites. This is something governments have taken advantage of. Once you launch a satellite its hard to 'view' it without actually being in space.

Well, not with a direct telescope, but optical interferometry could achieve the milli-arcsecond resolution needed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_interferometer

I'm not sure if there exists a telescope that has the resolution, but it's within current technology.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com